by Jeffrey Mayer 

I was sitting at my desk working on another training 
manual when the phone rang.

"Hello, Jeff Mayer."

"Hi Jeff. My name is Carol Johnson. I own a financial 
services company that sells life insurance, annuities 
and mutual funds.

"We're having an annual meeting, and was wondering if you 
do keynote presentations or sales training seminars."

"Of course I do. What exactly is it that you're looking for."

"Well, I read an article you wrote on how to create an elevator 
speech and I thought it was brilliant. I was wondering if you 
could put together a program to help my team do a better 
job of selling."

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"What date are you looking for?"

"The middle of October, October 12 to be exact."

"And where will it be held?"

"We'll be meeting in Phoenix. And what is your fee?"

I must say that I was a bit surprised she asked the "What does 
it cost?" question so quickly. She appeared to be more concerned 
with cost than with my content, how I do my programs, and 
how this would be of benefit and value to her sales team.

We discussed fees and other issues like travel and hotel 
accommodations and then Carol abruptly said, "Send 
me a proposal so I can think about it."

"I don't do proposals, I do contracts. Have I been hired?" 

There was a deathly silence at the other end of the phone. A 
few moments later Carol said, "Well... no you haven't been 
hired yet. I'm speaking with you and several other speakers 
to determine who will be the best one for us?"

"What criteria will you be using to determine 
who you select as your presenter?"

"I don't know yet. I'll decide after I've spoken with everybody. 
By the way, can you give me a list of references."

"Of course I can, and will be happy to do so after you've 
decided that you want me to do the program for you.

"What additional information would you like from me to help 
you make your decision? Do you receive my newsletter? 
Have you visited my SucceedingInBusiness.com web site? 
Have you read any of my eBooks or training manuals?"

"No. I haven't had time to do any of those."

Then Carol continued, "Jeff, you've given me a lot to think 
about. I'll have to get back to you."

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          * How often does someone say, "Thanks 
             for calling, but we don't need any?" 

          * How much time do you spend - waste - 
             following up with prospects who never buy? 

          * Have you ever chased a prospect for months only
             to discover that he's not the decision maker?   

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"Would you like to setup a date to talk further?"

"No. I'll get back to you."

The call ended and we both hung up the phone.

Getting Commitment
I'm sharing this story with you because it's far too easy to spend 
days, weeks or months chasing opportunities that never close. 
There is a big difference between following up with an interested 
prospect and chasing people who give you the runaround.

Once you ask the commitment question your phone 
calls and meetings become very interesting

It's fun to watch what happens when you ask:

   * Have I been hired?
   * Would you like to buy this?
   * Do you have a credit card?
   * Would you like to sign this agreement 
      [contract, purchase order]?

Unfortunately, most sales people forget that they are in the signed 
contract business and NOT in the proposal creation business.

We don't get paid to create proposals! And Carol was using the 
proposal request as a way to end the phone call.

She couldn't have cared less about how much time I spent 
putting together a proposal. Or how much time I would 
spend in the future following up on a proposal that 
would never turn into a signed contract.

That's my problem... not hers. 

From past experience, I've found that once the proposal's 
been sent it's very difficult to get the person on the 
phone to discuss it further. 

Voice mail messages aren't returned. E-mail messages aren't 
replied to. And you continue to chase ghosts and shadows 
that never turn into paid business.

Has this ever happened to you? How did it make you feel? 
How long did you pursue it until you gave up and moved on?

Don't Be In A Hurry To Give References
Then Carol asked for references. That's another 
stalling - and time-wasting - request.

The typical response is, "Sure, I'll be happy to give you 
the names of some of my wonderful clients."

But will you get hired after the references check out?

Once again, you can ask some great 
qualifying - commitment - questions.

   * Be happy to give you the names of some of 
      my clients, and after you've spoken with them - and 
      they gave me glowing reviews - have I been hired? or 

   * Be happy to give you the names of some of my clients, 
      but before we do that, why don't you make up a list of 
      the questions you want to ask them and we could discuss 
      them first. Then you could call my references. 

The goal here is to learn the level of interest and 
commitment that the customer has. 

QUALIFY! QUALIFY! QUALIFY!

As of this moment, I don't know if I've been hired but I'm 
inclined to doubt it. And I'm not sitting by the phone 
waiting for it to ring. 

I'm on the phone looking for new business, and so should you.

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          If you've no trouble cold calling, but are unhappy with 
          your results, you should take a look at my newest training 
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          Here's the link to order your copy:
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Reprinted with permission from "Jeffrey Mayer's 
SucceedingInBusiness.com Newsletter. (Copyright, 2005, Jeffrey J. 
Mayer, SucceedingInBusiness.com.) To subscribe to Jeff's free 
newsletter, visit http://www.SucceedingInBusiness.com."